To think lockdown has revealed a glaring class difference?

[TexanBlueNeck]

Filled in a survey & read some of the latest "lifestyle" columnists in UK (digital) newspapers.

No, some people are not using lockdown to browse around buying clothes and home accessories or patter about experimenting with new recipe ideas from inventive food combinations or try out a new food box delivery service.

Some of us are at breaking point between juggling childcare duties, supporting vulnerable or elderly relatives and neighbours, working from home or not at all, using the last tin of smartprice tomatoes that could be bought at an empty supermarket shelf (in person, because full-time worker parents aren't a priority group). While worrying about job security. Not whether to buy new sofa cushions while the cockpot experiment cooks!

I honestly think some commentators' experience of lockdown isn't even on the same planet as a huge portion of the rest of the (working class) UK

Turning on each other and comparing, feeling resentful etc is how society starts to break down.

Next stop...civil war.

Bigbluebus I'm really sorry you have had a really tough few years. May your DD be at peace with her DGP.

Justalittlehistory fingers crossed that you are able to keep your child safe.

I think it has revealed a glaring difference in attiitudes. There are a lot of examples of people being incredibly kind and going out of their way to help others. Then there are some people that clearly do not give a crap about anyone else. Examples-woman shouting at our local Co-op cashier because he would only allow her to buy one 9 pack of toilet roll rather than the 3 she wanted to; local pharmacy closed for the afternoon after their technician was assaulted by a customer.

We are fairly lucky, I am a nurse so my job is stable, we have a little garden and although I haven't been able to get my usual shop online, like many others, we have adapted and are just getting on with it.

@Lex234 I agree! I’ve heard about stories like this from shop staff. It’s awful

That said the government advise is to shop for vulnerable people, and shop as rarely as you can. Some shops limiting goods make that impossible. Does not excuse rudeness or assault in any way though.

Nothing to do with income OR class and everything to do with family and work set up.

You could be rich and still stuffed at the moment if your parents are ill at the other end of the country and you’ve got young kids whose schools have closed...and you are in a high pressure job. I actually think this thing is a bit of a leveller - money can’t buy you an Ocado delivery or childcare right now.

I think it depends on what your life looked like before. Been freelancing working entirely from home for three years. So the only change is to my social life. DH has taken over the weekly shopping trip. Church service is now over internet. Karate training is now being given over internet.
Have spent three years adjusting to this after working full time for a company that shut down and being unable to find a normal job. Must be a lot harder for people who have had to make this adjustment in a matter of days

It’s not just income though either.

You’ve put internet shopping and generally having an easy time in one category and then put money worries in the same category as helping the vulnerable.

I get their will be some difference in money worries between people in different careers and in different financial situations but I don’t see what that’s got to do with whether you’re helping out friends and relatives.

I actually don't believe anyone with children is having an easy time of it, regardless, not even those that once had a nanny etc, particularly those that had nannies and lots of childcare help. They may be in the unenviable position of having to look after their children for the first time ever!!

Couples and single people will soon find the boredom eating away at their soul. There is only so much baking, knitting and gardening anyone can do before they just want to escape

Everyone will have their cross to bear with this virus.
Those that are still working from home, will be overstretched and ready to break juggling childcare as well, those that are not working (with or without children) will be going silently mad after the first week of decorating or whatever it is they are doing, they will miss the outside world as much as the rest of us.

The only 'class' of people that will benefit are the hermits of our country. The introverts will be having a field day enjoying the long empty calendar that has finally been bestowed on them :)

It's an income issue not class - I'm middle class, work from home but I'm very sick. Can I get food, no. My family live miles away, and nobody wants to come near me!! I'm relying on social care, which is limited and at breaking point, and have been told that I will be referred to the volunteers that have come forward to help. I can't work at the moment and have no income. I am using my savings which has taken me years to build up. I have applied for universal credit which will take some time to process and I am worried that my care needs will not be fully met, in which case I will have to fund myself. Goodbye savings. It depends on your personal circumstances and everybody is struggling in their own way - whether it's loss of earnings, childcare problems, getting food from the supermarket etc. We have to get through this as best we can despite our incomes and circumstances, just like people did during the war.

It’s not even about income but wealth. A family in the SE with a large mortgage and a single high earner in the entertainments or retail space is basically hosed right now if they don’t have savings.

Income fluctuates throughout life tbh. As a widow with a two year old I was definitely in the poor category. My husband died when he was 28 leaving me with our son. I quickly learned how to ‘make do’ and how to cobble a meal together from fresh air.

I remarried, husband a policeman with two sons - also widowed - and I was able to return to work as a surgical nurse. For lots of years we’ve had a very comfortable way of life but thankfully my years of having sod all have stood us in good stead now because I can still cobble meals together from very little.

My mental health has taken a massive dive in the last week

Idris Elba tested. No testing for frontline NHS
Charles and Camilla tested, after ignoring pleas to not travel to second home. My police force has been told your don’t need to wear PPE unless you know an individual has the virus. We just don’t have enough for anything more than that.
Families heading rapidly into completely breaking due to end of income. Richard Branson asking for a bail out.
People in my village cheering the NHS, AND the Tories that have done their best to shatter the NHS.
Having a heart condition and having to go into a workplace because my force IT can’t cope with the numbers working from home.
Boris Johnson ignoring the EU’s offer to take up some ventilators, whilst giving his mate Dyson a contract that’s not even going to be ready when we need it.
Well off people tutting at the full Tubes, and pontificating about ‘stay home’ - Stay home until you won’t have one. Or food. They then say ‘they can use their savings’. Fucking joke.

This has definitely made a clear division between the haves and have nots. Worst thing is, loads of the have nots keep kissing the haves arses.

I can’t even think about what’s happening in India.

I think it’s about income rather than class . A huge swath of the so called middle class will be bricking themselves . They learn well but live month to month spending the majority of their monthly income on a large mortgage , expensive financed cars ,school fees and foreign holidays. If the pay stops coming in they’re fecked.

must be very small if only 2 million.

"hey learn well but live month to month spending the majority of their monthly income on a large mortgage , expensive financed cars ,school fees and foreign holidays. If the pay stops coming in they’re fecked."

Well that's their choice isn't and they can stop those things when they need to. A poor person can't stop their expenses.

It’s not a class difference! I have a “well to do” friend who out earns me by over x3... she is struggling as has little food in the house and no savings. I have food, I have savings. (And a 10p ph above min wage job)

She has 3 or 4 holidays a year, I haven’t been abroad in 20 years and my only holiday in the last 10 year was a long weekend in Wales.

It’s priorities and organisation... and maybe being aware of how quickly your situation can change.

@Gwenhwyfar It would be an unusual mortgage that you could just choose to stop paying. The same goes for utility bills/ council tax and so on. The fact is that for almost anyone a prolonged drop in income, even 'only' by a fifth, is a significant challenge.

It’s not even about income but wealth.

And wealth tends to be associated with the higher classes & passed down through generations

Gwen - I think you’ll find you can’t just stop the house payments , the car payments , the school payments etc . I think those used to less will fair better.

And people with less or earning min wage won’t be the ones stretching themselves to afford the expensive house and the associated bills that go with it . It will be a huge wake up call for many .

Exactly druggedup - you’ll be fine because you’ve never stretched yourself . Some people will be screwed .

Yes, but some people are. Journalists write about a whole spectrum of people. Including those who are cooking and pattering around. Plus, what do you want LIFESTYLE journalists to write? Hard-hitting news?

That's not their job, and it must be hard to write about fashion/beauty/relationships etc while everyone is locked in the house and shops and bars are shut...

I'd say the real class difference are those key workers who still have to work through this. The majority are not doctors but nurses, carers, delivery drivers, cleaners etc. on low pay who don't have the luxury of being driven mad by their children, they're having to work and worry about what they're bringing home to their families.

Can but those people will be ok because they’re still working and still earning .

To be fair, such columnists are supposed to write aspirational rubbish encouraging us to buy unnecessary sofas, cushions, designer dogs, cast iron enamelled pans that you cant lift, etc. They're paid for by advertising. Apart from the occasional poverty porn piece the usual old guff rolled out is to encourage our discontent regardless of class. Oh god!! There's nothing to buy with shops closed!